BERLIN, July 14 - Germany’s media oversight body announced on Tuesday that AI-generated news summaries and chatbot responses from services such as Google’s AI Overviews and Perplexity are subject to the country’s media regulations. The Commission for Licensing and Supervision, ZAK, which speaks for Germany’s 14 state media authorities, said these AI services produce content in a way that makes them providers rather than mere platforms displaying third-party material.
In its statement, ZAK argued that AI-produced summaries and conversational answers are not simply a collection of links or automatic reproductions of external sources. The regulator said the Digital Services Act’s liability exemption - the EU framework that typically shields platforms from responsibility for illegal user-generated content - does not apply in these cases, according to the announcement.
The regulator highlighted how Google’s AI Overviews appear prominently inside search results, reducing the visibility of traditional lists of links and thereby creating an uneven playing field for third-party media content. ZAK also said that chatbots like Perplexity affect how news is discovered by selecting and presenting sources, links or recommendations alongside AI-generated replies.
Those characteristics could mean such services qualify as media intermediaries and become subject to rules intended to protect media plurality, the regulator added.
The ZAK pronouncement follows a separate court ruling in Munich which found that Google could be directly liable for allegedly false statements generated by its AI Overview feature. The German newspaper publishers' association BDZV said the court determined AI-produced summaries amounted to content of the company itself rather than a mere display of third-party information.
"AI search engines and chatbots are content providers, and we will consistently apply German media law to them from now on," ZAK Chairman Thorsten Schmiege said in the regulator’s statement.
Google said it would appeal the Munich decision, with a spokesperson arguing the ruling "fails to recognise how people’s preferences when searching for information and the information ecosystem are changing." The company also defended its summaries as a benefit to users, saying: "Our AI-powered summaries enhance the search experience in Germany - they help users discover new content and ask follow-up questions."
Perplexity declined to comment on the regulatory announcement but stated it complies with the EU’s privacy framework, GDPR, and holds SOC 2 Type II security and privacy certification.
The regulator’s interpretation increases legal scrutiny on how major technology providers present condensed information to users and raises the possibility that operational and compliance obligations tied to media plurality and discoverability could be applied to AI-driven search and chatbot interfaces.
How these developments will play out through appeals, regulatory enforcement, or subsequent legal challenges was not detailed by the regulator or the companies in their statements.